SENTENCING OF JAMES C. PIERCE

          Evangeline Parish, Judge Preston Aucoin
          December 29, 1998

          Pierce, on October 19, 1998, a jury composed of 12 persons found you guilty of the following offenses: Count 1 - 3rd Offense DWI; Count 2 - Manslaughter of Joshua Lee Deville; Count 3 - Manslaughter of Tyler Keith Deville; Count 4 - First Degree Vehicular Negligent Injuring of Patrick Neal Fontenot, II Prior to this sentencing process, this court ordered a Pre-sentence Investigation which was completed and delivered to me on November 12, 1998. The court has carefully reviewed and perused the Pre-sentence Investigation Report, which sadly enough, reveals that you are not an exemplary citizen and will not be nominated for the Nobel Prize for promoting peace. Your reported criminal record, among other things, consists of the following: 1) Jan. 7, 1981 - you were convicted of Drunkenness in Anahuac, TX, Chambers County 2) July 24 or 25, 1981 - You were convicted of Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, to-wit: crack cocaine in Scurry County, TX and sentenced to 5 years, sentence suspended, 5 years probation. Probation revoked on May 10, 1984 and paroled on November 21, 1984. 3) May 10, 1998 - You were convicted of DWI, Possession of Marijuana not more than 2 ounces, in Scurry County, Tx and fined $300.00 and jailed for 72 hours. 4) Sept. 10, 1987 - You were convicted of DWI in Harrison County, TX, fined $1,500 and sentenced to 180 days in jail, suspended and placed on 24 months probation and a $850 fine. 5) January 10, 1988 you were convicted of DWI in Dallas, TX, Dallas County Criminal Court and given a 15 days jail sentence and fined $300. 6) July 15, 1994 - You were convicted of DWI (First Offense) in the 13th judicial District Court, Evangeline Parish, La. and given four-month jail sentence suspended and placed on one year active supervised probation and fined. 7) March 28, 1995 - You were convicted of DWI (2nd Offense) in the 17th Judicial District Court, Parish of Lafourche and given a six months parish jail sentence, suspended, and a $500.00 fine and court cost. 8) August 12, 1995 - You were convicted of Driving under Suspension, Careless Operation with an Accident in the 13th Judicial District Court, Evangeline Parish, La. and fined $400.00 and court costs. 9) May 20, 1996 - You were convicted of Speeding, 87 MPH, Driving Under Suspension, Reckless Operation Of A Vehicle, Resisting Arrest By Flight, and Failure to Use Signal When Turning in the 13th Judicial District Court, and fined $400.00 and court costs. It is crystal clear to this Court that in the past, on many occasions, you took illegal drugs, that you drove while intoxicated, that you drove while suspended, meaning you did not have a right to, but did anyway, and that you did not much care what the law dictates to you, whether it be TX or LA, or anywhere else on this planet. Now let us turn to the matter before the Court. Through your utter and disdainful disregard for human life and safety of our people, particularly our little children, and you avaricious and glutinous desire to selfishly satisfy your piggish and ravenous desire to consume alcohol and smoke marijuana, and as a lion greedy of his prey, you embarked upon one of the most wicked and macabre short term journeys ever known in Evangeline Parish, illegally driving under suspension (meaning you did not have the right to drive at all and were committing a crime by doing so) on May 3, 1997, hell-bent on gratifying your perverse, evil pleasures of the flesh by drinking alcohol and doping yourself into a stupor and committing some of the most despicable crimes known to the citizens of Evangeline Parish. Through your moral depravity and wickedness, you succeeded in taking the lives of two beautiful and innocent brothers, Joshua Lee Deville, age 10, and Tyler Keith Deville, age 7, and nearly that of a third child, Patrick Neal Fontenot II, age 9, as they rode their bicycles, attempting to get out of your way as they heard you coming like a mad man. It is difficult for one not versed in law to understand and appreciate why these were not cold-blooded murders. What is more revealing about your evilness are your collective criminal actions and words following this gruesome and grim calamity. For example, when Lee Deville arrived and beheld his two dead little sons, and the little Fontenot boy trapped under your car in the ditch, entangled in the bicycle, crushed and nearly drowning, crying for help, you drunkenly and sadistically told him “hey man, I just ran over me three kids”, and when he asked you for help to try to extract the little Fontenot boy from under your car, you reeking with alcohol, cruelly and mercilessly using the expletive, “f__k you”, and when Cynthia Deville was praying over the little crushed bodies of her two darling sons, you callously told her to “cool it, lady”, and your getting into your car fully knowing the Fontenot child was trapped under it, suffering, nearly drowning and crying for help, and starting and revving up the engine, in an attempt to escape, spinning your wheels in the ditch, throwing, showering and coating the dead boys with mud, not caring what that was doing to the little boy who was caught under the car and struggling to stay alive. It appears to the Court you were deriving sadistic pleasure from your brutal and inhuman deeds. I ask you, M. Pierce, what kind of a human being are you? Are you a human at all or a wicked, cruel, depraved lowly sub human type of merciless monster who even makes the most average barbarian look civilized? Are you fit to live among good, honest, sober, hard working, tax paying, church going, clean living, peace loving citizens of Evangline Parish? The court has observed you carefully during your trial, as it is doing at this time, and will state with certainty that at no time have you shown any remorse whatsoever. In fact, when the jury verdicts were read, you smiled or rather smirked. You have demonstrated to this Court that you are the personification of wickedness, and you represent immoral depravity. You are simply not a good citizen but a demoniac creature, and have proved it on numerous occasions as the pre-sentence investigation report and this trial showed. Therefore, you are not entitled to live with good citizens. M. Pierce, think of how the Deville family feels, not to mention the Fontenot family; try, if it is possible for you to do, to put yourself in their places and picture Lee and Cynthia Deville as they visit and pray and weep over their little children’s graves in that silent city of tombs. How many times a day do you think they re-live that evening of May3, 1997? And, how do you think the community feels about what you did? You, sir, have made life miserable for a whole lot of good people, friends, relatives, and acquaintances of those little children, and it is far from being rhetorical for me to state that you are indeed a serious and severe threat and menace to those citizens who are trying to lead normal lives in these trying times, further troubled by the likes of you. These citizens are a credit to the community, and have a right to enjoy the good life they have labored for; they have a right to be left alone and not be worried about themselves and their children being killed and maimed like animals by crazed, doped up, drunken drivers like you recklessly determined to wreak havoc upon the lives of others. They have a right to be governed by the rule of law, not he rule of man. This Court will nor permit us to drift backward to pre-historic and ancient times when the law of the jungle prevailed, i.e., when the strongest one with the biggest club prevailed over the small, weaker one, usually one with no club at all. Mister, you are a big time felonist and in big time trouble, and your accrued criminal actions call for a punishment that is meaningful, one that will absolutely deter you from committing similar offenses in the future, and guarantee that goal. Your combined crimes are inexcusable, and they are vicious, brutal and savage, and there is not the slightest degree of justification for your committing them. Your name will live in infamy in Evangeline Parish and will be disgraced and dishonored forever. You stand for rebellion and creator of chaos, as opposed to law and order, and you have exhibited it flagrantly, making a mockery of justice. You have plainly shown the Court that you simply refuse to conform to what is required to be a good citizen by deviating from what is right and acceptable, and by committing these unpardonable hard crimes. Because of your depraved and accrued criminal actions, the law and society require you to separated from the rest of the people by high-rise, gloomy, gray concrete prison walls topped with razor sharp barbed wire where they will be assured that you cannot again embark on another reckless, heartless, hell-bent expedition of unrestrained ruthlessness and death, with no respect for the law and order. The Court specifically finds that: 1) There is an undue risk that during the period of a suspended sentence or probation, you would commit another crime. 2) You are in need of correctional treatment or a custodial environment that can be provided most effectively by your commitment to a penal institution. 3) A lesser sentence would deprecate the seriousness of your abominable, execrable, and detestable crimes for which you were convicted. On Count One, Third Offense Driving While Intoxicated, the Court sentences you to five years at hard labor. On Count two, Manslaughter of Joshua Lee Deville, the Court sentences you to 40 years of hard labor. On Count Three, Manslaughter of Tyler Keith Deville, The Court sentences you to 40 years of hard labor. On Count Four, First-Degree Vehicular Negligent Injuring of Patrick Neal Fontenot, II, and the Court sentences you to five years of hard labor. All four sentences are to run consecutive. For your edification, M. Pierce, that totals 90 years. You are also given given credit for time served.



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